You have to figure that when two people contact you on the same day out of the blue for no apparent reason -- one seeking advice, the other offering facts about the local police -- there might be a connection, and if you wait long enough, suffer hard enough, and keep low enough, eventually it will all come out in the wash, and it did.
But the worst part wasn't mine, but the backstabbing of others who gave their love and trust and then got dumped out at the curb when the scam got uncovered -- never told the truth as to what part they played when these poor fools who played the role of mentor and were blind to the fact that they were being used for someone else's game.
Con artists come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common, they always leave a landscape of broken people in their wake, and when they are good con artists, they generally manage to slip out of the noose in the nick of time, finding some new scam and new group of suckers to play.
But like all con arists they always go too far, it's the trade mark that gives them away.